Agent and semantic support for rural enterprise Timothy J. Norman, Chukwuemeka David Emele, Leanne Townsend, Alison Smart Nophadol Jekjantuk, Akanimo Samuel Okure, Alice Toniolo, Jeff Z. Pan, Katia Sycara * and Claire Wallace dot.rural Digital Economy Research Hub, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK {t.j.norman, c.emele, l.townsend}@abdn.ac.uk ABSTRACT Networking offers significant benefits to entrepreneurs in de- veloping contacts and learning from others. There is, how- ever, strong evidence that face-to-face networking is a chal- lenge for rural businesses due to relative isolation. Many have claimed that on-line business networking may offer a solution, but what are the needs of rural entrepreneurs and to what extent can on-line business networking help? In this paper we present some highlights from an in-depth analysis of rural business needs, and outline the technologies being developed in collaboration with users and deployed on a live service ruralconnectionsscotland.com. 1. INTRODUCTION In rural UK, small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) pre- dominate, typically with few or no employees. Such SMEs tend to be smaller than those in urban areas, and are of- ten geographically remote which makes face-to-face busi- ness networking difficult [2, 6]. However, as highlighted by Burgess [1], “[r]ural areas need support to pioneer forms of brokerage and create virtual clusters or networks to ac- cess [...] services and share good practice”, and it has been argued that the inherent social capital in rural areas can translate through networking [9]. Furthermore, recent evi- dence highlights the benefits in enabling rural businesses to work together to achieve economies of scale and to access support and information [6]. With respect to on-line sup- port for businesses, Galloway & Deakins [3] investigate how on-line forums can be used to support effective knowledge sharing among entrepreneurs. There may, therefore, be sig- nificant potential for on-line networking services to support rural enterprise for various purposes. A number of critical questions, however, remain. What existing networking ser- vices are used by rural businesses, for what purposes and in what sectors of the rural economy? What are the needs of entrepreneurs in these communities, and what technologies are appropriate to meet those needs? 2. ANALYSIS OF NEED In this research, we adopt a participatory approach in order to ensure that the needs of stakeholders are well un- derstood and met. In taking this approach, we are working * Katia Sycara is also Research Professor, The Robotics In- stitute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, US. Digital Futures 2012, Aberdeen, UK in partnership with Scottish Enterprise, a non-departmental public body responsible for promoting economic develop- ment in Scotland, three business leaders and a user group representing 15 rural businesses throughout Scotland. The first stage of the research consisted of qualitative baseline interviews with the user group. Our aims were to: (a) in- vestigate the meaning and value of networking; (b) explore experiences of and attitudes towards online networking; and (c) to explore networking-related needs and how these might be addressed with an online business networking tool. Our findings reveal insights into rural business network- ing practices and highlight areas of weakness. We identify needs, expectations and preferences of rural business users in relation to online business networking. Here, we briefly outline some identified as most important. 2.1 Resource sharing A relatively high proportion of the rural businesses in- terviewed indicated the need for support through services that will facilitate resource sharing among rural businesses. An interpretation of this is that businesses have experienced benefits from sharing resources either as an additional source of revenue from renting, or as a saving in capital investment by renting. One of the interviewees noted that: “One of the neighbours has a dung spreader which everyone in the area uses. It’s hired out ... everybody only uses it for a couple of weeks of the year so he bought a big fancy new machine and we all hire it round about between everybody and he charges us for it... it’s been quite successful.” 2.2 Collaboration Many rural businesses work in isolation, partly because they do not know what others require and/or produce. How- ever, collaboration is something that many of the businesses interviewed were open to and keen to explore. One of the interviewees said “Collaboration is welcome on absolutely everything, and anything”. Another business owner noted that “My whole job is collaboration... purely because I don’t have the money to do things all by myself”. 2.3 Support and advice As additional evidence for the conclusions drawn by Gal- loway & Deakins [3], interviewees highlighted the potential for value in an on-line community of rural businesses with similar interests or circumstances. For example: “If there’s something I’m involved with where I feel there must be some- one out there who knows more about this than I do then I can go in and ask..., rather than trial and error...”